The demand for greater fuel efficiency in vehicles is driving a need for the use of lighter materials, including, for example, carbon fiber composite material. Present day carbon fiber composite materials represent a new class of materials that traditionally have not been used in high volume production. As a result, component design, engineering, materials and manufacturing process development for the economical, high volume production of composite material vehicle parts is not very well understood. Furthermore, the sustainability of carbon fiber composite materials has not been thoroughly considered as it pertains to mass commoditization in the automotive market.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for improved methods and devices for forming composite materials in order to, for example, achieve the weight saving potential of carbon fiber composites.